New York Times, Friday, November 18, 2016

This is a bit of an odd puzzle for me. I like the individual entries as much as any other crossword I've constructed, yet it doesn't have the cohesive feel I normally strive for. From the preponderance of proper names in the upper left, the INs pileup in the lower left, and a couple more abbreviations than I normally like to use, something feels a bit off. Ms. Rice crossing the three central entries still looks good though, so at least the heart of the puzzle remains strong.

I'm pleased to see that many of my original clues made the cut, and as always, the changes were universally upgrades. 33-Across (BAR MITZVAHS) was my favorite discovery while reviewing the final version.

Luckily for solvers, I tend to be a poor judge of how my puzzles are received, so hopefully it'll go over better than in my mind. Enjoy!

My first reaction mirrored Peter's: beautiful middle, CONDOLEEZZA RICE crossing COLD HEARTED / GINGERBREAD / BAR MITZVAHS. Those tricky Zs + a smooth, crossword-glue-free zone = a real winner in my book. I know some people have their issues with Condi, but there's no doubt in my mind she's crossworthy. Nice to see her clued as one of the first women breaking Augusta National's old boys network.

These types of big-center puzzles often result in so-so fill in the corners, because 1.) so many black squares tend to get spent in isolating the middle and 2.) the NE and SW corners don't have much room for long material. Peter does well to work in MEATHEAD and CARJACKS.

I wasn't as much a fan of IN AN HOUR, BY A NOSE, SAME OLD, though. The first has an arbitrary feel, the second is partial-ish (WIN BY A NOSE is much better), and the third requires an inelegant "when repeated …" Some potential left on the table in these three slots.

I also didn't care as much for the upper left and lower right corners as I did for the middle. As much as I like rare letters — X and Z up in the NW and J + 2 Ks in the SE — there were so many tough names. I like a few proper names usually, and maybe I should have known some subset of J COLE, JONI Ernst / Alan COLMES, Ilia KULIK, BABALU, BILLY ZANE. But to get them all concentrated into two small sections made for tough, unsatisfying solves for me, especially when the curious ADMIX got thrown into the mix.

It was also a surprise to see NEWS DESK crossing NEW. I *think* there's a case to be made that NEWS / NEW don't share etymology, but it feels inelegant at the very least.

Overall though, a stellar center of the puzzle, plus some extras here and there — SLOPE clued using the math formula y = mx +b, hooray! — still made for a lot of fun.